Designing Health Cities Using Data and Policy

Dr. Daniel Fuller
Canada Research Chair in Population Physical Activity Memorial University of Newfoundland

Joyce (Noel) O’Doherty Wellness Fund

Blue Sky

Physical Activity is Good for You

Woodcock et al. 2011

Underlying Assumption

Flickr: Michel Rathwell

Data

Data

Data

Data

Fuller et al. 2017

What we know

  • Mixed land use and walkable areas promote physical activity
  • Sprawl reduces physical activity
  • Public Transit contributes to physical activity
  • High quality infrastructure are key

ADD REFS

What we want to know

  • How much do specific urban form changes influence behaviour?
  • What is the potential health impact of urban form changes?
  • What can researchers do to help cities?

Themes

- Research

- Policy

- Ethics

- Open Science

Projects

- ITHIM

- BikeMaps

- Urban Form Measures

- Computer Vision

- Itinerum

- Ethics

ITHIM

  • Integrated Transport and Health Impact Modelling Tool
  • Allows one to estimate the health impact of transportation interventions
  • Considers multiple factors and both co-benefits and co-risks

ITHIM

  • Estimated impact of three scenarios in California
    • Rate per million population

Low Carbon Driving AT AT + LCD
Premature Deaths -3 -305 - 308
DALYS -31 -5169 -5197

Maizlish et al. 2013

BikeMaps

  • 30% of bike collision data are collected
  • Cyclists are 2x more likely to be a in collision that motor vehicle users
  • Need a central method of reporting

https://bikemaps.org/about/

BikeMaps

Measures

  • Urban Density Score

    • Combines 19 measures for all cities in Canada
    • First national sprawl index
    • FINISH ME

Urban Density Score

Transit Accessibility Score

  • Transit Accessibility Score
    • 41 Canadian Cities
    • Global Transit Feed Specification
      • St. John's
        • 926 stops | 116,151 stop times
      • TTC: Toronto
        • 10,634 stops | 4,347,536 stop times
    • First national transit accessibility index

Transit Accessibility Score

Machine Learning

Computer Vision

Image Recognition

Computer Vision

  • Detect cycling infrastructure and cleared sidewalks
  • Detect changes

Computer Vision

Computer Vision

INTERACT

  • The INTErventions, Research, and Action in Cities Team (INTERACT) is a national research collaboration of scientists, urban planners, and engaged citizens uncovering how the design of our cities is shaping the health and wellbeing of Canadians from coast to coast.

INTERACT

Transportation Mode Detection

Policy

  • What is generizable?
  • What is local?
  • How do local and generalizable interact?

Policy

Policy

VOCM

Competition

Sidewalk Toronto

Competition

The Guardian

Ethical Reflections

Open Science

Team

You Rock!
Faramarz Dorani Jonathan Low
Hui Luan Desiree van Heerden
Kassia Orychock Javad Rahimipour Anaraki
Bo Simango Majid Beheshti Mohtasham
Maria Yulmetova Melissa Tobin
Machel Rayner Richard Buote

Funding